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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22555738">A Good Kind Of Pressure</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Biting, Cunnilingus, F/M, First Time Together, Hand Jobs, Happy Sex, Inexperienced Fun, Making Love, Making Out, Porn with Feelings, Questionable use of prestidigitation, Religion, Size Difference, Smut, Spoilers for Season 4, These two have been through so much angst I just want to give them a good time, Vaginal Fingering</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:01:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,748</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22555738</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hamid's worried he's imposing. As it turns out, he's not.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan/Azu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>The Rusty Quill Thirst Collection</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Good Kind Of Pressure</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was happening enough to become habit—routine, even. Enough so that Hamid, sheepishly tapping on Azu’s door and softly entering her room at the inn for the sixth night in a row, haltingly worried in a small voice that he was imposing on her. He stood there, just inside the room, wringing his hands and promising that he would figure this out—a way to sleep by himself again without the hours of tossing and turning, feeling empty and adrift with himself. Without needing her hand in his or her arms around his middle, the comforting reminder that he wasn’t alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Azu just smiled in that gentle and understanding way she had when he had first asked her if he could still sleep next to her, that first night in Cel’s village. She had enfolded his hand in hers and he had finally felt safe again. This time she sat up a little in bed and patted the mattress next to her. Relieved, Hamid trotted up and slid beneath the covers, into her arms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu was the sort of person who could give excellent hugs when clad in metal armour; in nothing but the softness of her night robes, she was entirely unmatched. Hamid curled up against her side and let her pull him tightly against her chest as he laid his head just below her collarbone, the fabric warm against his cheek. Her arms wrapped around him were as strong and immovable as stone, but he felt held as safely and carefully as an egg—as much force as needed but none that would break him. He relaxed into the embrace and let the pressure melt away his stress with a deep sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know there is no shame in seeking comfort, Hamid,” Azu murmured, leaning her head down so that she spoke into his hair. Hamid listened to her chest hum with the soft cadence of her voice and took his time in replying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know. But you are always so willing to offer it. I just… don’t want to take advantage of that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He felt the squeeze of Azu tightening her arms around him for a moment. “Offering comfort is how I seek it myself. Please know that I get as much out of this as you do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see.” The thought made him smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And,” Azu continued with a chuckle, “you are by far my most reliable supplier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid gave a soft laugh back. He took a breath as if to say something else, but thought the better of it—his mind was still swirling with thoughts that he just wanted to silence in Azu’s arms. He fidgeted into a new position and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to convince himself that it was working until Azu gave a gentle, “Hm,” from above his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One moment.” She let go of him, leaning up on one elbow and lighting the lamp on her bedside table. Then she turned back to him, still propped up on her arm, and watched him seriously. “You’re troubled about something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a troubling world out there, Azu,” Hamid deflected, to an expression that suggested that Azu wouldn’t take that for an answer. He sighed, rolling onto his back to look at the ceiling. “I suppose… I’ve come to rely on you a great deal. I can’t imagine doing any of this without you. And I don’t know how long it’s going to take. But… we’ve only known each other for a few weeks. It feels like longer—well, it <em>is</em> longer for the rest of the world, I suppose—but… I ask a lot of you. More than I should. What with everything that’s going on, and… how much I need you with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid bit his lip and dared to face her again. Azu looked thoughtful, and placed a hand on his shoulder, brushing her thumb back and forth comfortingly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm. I think perhaps halflings and orcs experience time a little differently,” she told him, kindly but firmly. “It does not seem like a short time to me. Too much has happened to us, together. I suppose you might not think of it as a long time. But it is <em>enough</em> time. To discover the nature of a person, and to decide to follow them. For me, and for you too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh,” Hamid said simply, and reflected on that thought for a few moments. It had been enough time for him, after all, to realise that he wanted Azu by his side, no matter what. Why should it not have been enough for Azu as well?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I already promised you I would not leave you, Hamid,” she continued. “And whether or not you think it sudden, I can assure you that promise was not made lightly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hand tightened around his shoulder for a second, strong and reassuring, and then she leaned in and brushed her lips against his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The kiss was quick and gentle, over in a moment, but it still sent Hamid’s pulse racing and a deep flush spreading down from his cheeks to his chest, and <em>oh</em>. Azu pulled back slightly and took in a breath as if to speak. Hamid didn’t want to let her apologise or shut herself away—he closed the distance and kissed her back, taking her face in both hands and pressing his lips insistently against hers, determined to leave no room for doubt. Azu let the breath out in a soft sigh and pulled him in close, sitting herself upright with one arm beneath his seat and the other around his back, fingers trailing the length of his spine and into his hair. Secure in his position, Hamid let his own hands wander across her face, brushing over her tusks, her cheekbones, the points of her ears, the fuzz of her shorn hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He opened his mouth to hers and Azu accepted eagerly, stroking her tongue against his own. The different sizes of their mouths combined with Hamid’s unfamiliarity with kissing around tusks led to a few initial moments of clumsiness, punctuated by muffled giggling, before they found an arrangement that worked. Azu’s fingers tightened in his hair, and Hamid felt warmth spread through every inch of him to be so surrounded by her. Time disappeared into the gentleness of her lips and the strength of her hands, until he had to pull away to catch his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Goodness,” he murmured, feeling his breath tremble and his heart pound in his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Goddess,” Azu whispered back. Perhaps not even to him—her eyes were still closed and the expression on her face seemed part relief, part bliss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A thought occurred to Hamid, and he watched her for a few moments while deciding whether to voice it. He ran a thumb down the curve of her cheek, heart in his mouth. “Is this… religious for you?” he asked softly. “N-not that I mind if it is, I just… I need to know what it means.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu took a deep breath before opening her eyes. “Only in a sense…” she began, her voice careful and measured, desperate not to misstep. “The way I understand it, for me, all expressions of… of affection and care, like holding someone close, embracing or kissing or—or making love…” Hamid felt his breath hitch as hers did. “…they are all to be done whole-heartedly and truly, with all of my being. It is not well done if not done with love, but to do so with love—that is an act of worship.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She waited for his response, her obsidian-dark eyes wide and vulnerable. It was a confession, he realised, with some deep significance that he didn’t wholly recognise, but he knew that much. And he realised that he barely had to think to give his answer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. <em>Oh</em>, I love you too, Azu, you need to know that. I adore you. I’ve never met anyone as wonderful or as kind or as beautiful, body and soul.” He kissed her again, slow and soft this time, then leaned his forehead against hers. Azu sighed happily, fuelling the warm glow in his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” she whispered. “Oh, Hamid, thank you.” A minute or two of still contentment passed until Azu spoke again. “Um. I realise you came here to go to sleep. We can do that now. If you want. Or… well. I couldn’t help but notice when I mentioned making love… that you might have been interested?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid knew exactly what she was referring to and had already been somewhat aroused when she first mentioned it—the thought had now captivated him, and he felt as eager as he felt entirely out of his depth. He’d never been particularly shy about sex before, but then he’d never even considered the possibility of falling for someone taller than a gnome. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, well…” Hamid began, squirming slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t have to be like that if you don’t want,” she added quickly. “Just this is lovely, I don’t need—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not that I don’t want to,” he cut in just as swiftly. “I do. Want to. Er. It’s just. How do we do this? We’re not terribly. Um. Compatible.” He glanced down between them with a shaky laugh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To his pleasant surprise, Azu chuckled. “We’re not trying to make babies here, are we? We’ll figure it out as we go along.” She brushed her free hand between his shoulder blades and down his back, slipping beneath the silk top of his pyjamas and brushing lightly over his skin, making him shiver. “May I?” she whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anything you want,” Hamid replied in a daze, helping her to tug the shirt off and letting it drop onto the bed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her exploration of his body was eager but unhurried. She kissed along his neck to his shoulder, and stroked her fingers along the ugly scar that spiralled down his arm. It was the part of his body he still felt the most self-conscious about, but he trusted Azu so deeply, and she treated it so tenderly, that the worry stayed coiled away inside him, deciding not to rear its head at this time. He felt better about the rest of himself—while he’d lost a fair amount of weight since signing up with the mercenary company, he wasn’t entirely lean, and his figure was still pleasingly soft and yielding beneath Azu’s curious fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Confident in his own skin as he was, their time in the cell had shaken him—this entire new reality of having to strip down in front of others to confirm each other as trustworthy was humiliating, as much as he knew it was necessary. Still, over that entire week, each of them had refused to look at the other during that process, granting that small amount of honour and privacy even as Zolf awkwardly advised them that it would be easier to lose such squeamishness as soon as possible. It was worth it, though, for this moment to be new to them—every kiss and touch from Azu was a gift, a restoration of his dignity, and he wanted nothing more than to offer her the same, his heart swelling with love and desire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid reached up to the collar of her night robes, but she gently caught his hands before he could slip them beneath it. She pressed her lips to his fingers. “Please,” she murmured, “let me do this for you first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. Of course.” Hamid let his hands drop and leaned his head against Azu’s shoulder, surrendering himself to her touch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are so beautiful,” Azu whispered into his hair as she drew her thumb-pad along his collarbone and across the curve of his chest, where the brassy sheen of scales faintly dusted his skin. She rested the palm of her hand over his heart, feeling the pulse of it for a few beats before running it down over his belly and the dark fuzz of hair beneath his navel. When she paused, querying, at his waistband, he wriggled out of the rest of his pyjamas and underwear in one go, sitting naked and somewhat breathless in the crook of her arm. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His prick was already hard, but Azu took her time to get there, running her hand along his leg first and stroking the inside of his thigh, before curling her hand around to cup his arse and squeeze. Hamid buried his face into her neck and hummed in pleasure while trying not to sound impatient, as her touch roamed up his spine, over the line of his hip and finally down between his legs. Her fingertips brushed along his perineum, over his balls, and up his length, and he muffled a moan into her skin as she rubbed her thumb across the head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emboldened, Azu began to stroke him in earnest, adjusting the position of her hand as she went until she found a comfortable rhythm—two fingers and a thumb around his shaft and the other two sliding between his thighs, pressing against the sensitive skin behind his balls. She kissed the top of his head, still buried in her neck, and murmured words too soft to hear, but with the cadence of reverence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid felt pleasure build up within him like a cup being filled with potent wine, hot and intoxicating, and he rocked up into her movements until it overflowed from him in delicious release. He sank his teeth into the flesh between her neck and shoulder, not enough to break the skin but enough to make her gasp, as the pressure that had been building up within him spilled out in a hot rush, onto his stomach and over her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu looked like she was about to find something to wipe them down, but Hamid didn’t want her to move an inch, so he let go of her for a moment and prestidigitated them clean before slumping back against her shoulder in light-headed satisfaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“<em>Hamid</em>,” she said in amused disbelief, and held him tight as he slowly came back to himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Azu, that was <em>wonderful</em>.” He twisted round to kiss where he’d bitten her. “I got a bit carried away, I’m sorry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu chuckled. “I don’t mind. You got a bit dragon-y there. I think I quite like it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oooh. Noted.” Arms wrapped loosely around Azu’s neck, Hamid waited for his breathing and heart rate to settle a little before he spoke again. “Would you like me to return the favour, albi?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu glowed at the endearment but gave a noncommittal shrug. “You shouldn’t feel obliged…” she began, and Hamid tutted. He let slip a leg from her grasp and slid his foot slowly and purposefully down her body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m asking permission, Azu,” he told her, his voice honeyed and as deliberate as his movements. “I certainly don’t feel obliged. It would be my ecstatic pleasure.” Azu’s night robes folded around her in a simple manner, and he was able to slip his foot through the gap between her legs, her undergarments warm and pleasingly damp against his skin as he pressed it against her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, when you put it like that, you’re very welcome,” Azu replied breathlessly, letting him slide fully from her hold and grinding eagerly against his ankle, still tucked against her crotch as he stood on the bed before her. Hamid took advantage of their rare parity in height to meet her with a deep kiss, hands cradling her head and his body pressed against hers, before moving his attention down to her jaw and neck. He breathed in deeply—she smelled gorgeous, like incense and cedarwood—and continued to mouth kisses against her neck and collarbone as he slid the robes from her shoulders. She offered no resistance this time, letting them fall to either side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid lowered himself to his knees on the bed, taking her breasts in his hands. Each was as big as his head, and he couldn’t help himself from burying his face in them with a moan of delight. They were firm and heavy in his grasp, and beautifully soft as he pressed into them, laying kisses on every inch of her his mouth could reach. He loved how he looked touching her, skin to skin, her smooth dark bronze to his warm copper. Hamid could feel himself begin to harden again, embarrassingly quickly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So good,” he said, voice muffled into her chest, all previous eloquence temporarily escaping him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You look awfully pleased with yourself,” Azu commented drily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe I am!” Hamid gave a nipple a playful tug with his teeth, a smug grin on his face. “But I can take a hint.” He gave her breasts a farewell squeeze, silently promising to return later, and continued to kiss his way down her body, admiring the firmness of her abdomen and the curve of her hips as he pulled away the remainder of her robes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a momentary readjustment as Azu slipped out of her underwear and Hamid shuffled back a little, giving her the space to lean back on her elbows, and then she was spread before him, legs apart and watching him in anticipation. He brushed his thumbs over the top of her lower lips, gently parting the hair that covered them. His lips followed, soft and tentative over her cleft, then his tongue, teasing her open with small licks around her entrance and her clit, until he could feel her squirming with the effort not to make him act faster.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hamid,” she said through clenched teeth, an impatient groan to the edge of her voice. “I never took you for a tease.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to savour this,” Hamid replied, expelling the air over her clit and feeling her shiver in response. He took a moment to admire the sight before him, pink so deep it was almost black, and felt a sudden sense of reverence, that what was happening was sacred and good and deserved every part of his attention. He bowed his head and took her into his mouth, licking over and around the firm nub of her, enjoying the size of it against his tongue, caressing and sucking and with every motion, though he had never before been the praying sort, thanking Aphrodite—thank you for her, thank you that I get to be here, that I get to give her this, that we get to have this—thank you, thank you, thank you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu’s head was thrown back when he glanced upwards, her breath coming in gasps and eyes closed. He paused a moment to whisper up at her. “Good?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” she whispered back, voice hoarse. “Oh yes, please don’t stop.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No intention of doing so,” he assured her. He pressed his mouth to her clit again briefly, before pulling away a moment to coat a couple of his fingers slick with oil with a short incantation and flick of his hand. That caused Azu to crack an eye open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you always bring magic to bed with you?” she asked, raising her brows in feigned accusation. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid flashed an innocent smile up at her. “It just makes everything so much easier, habibi.” He maintained mischievous eye contact as he slowly returned his tongue to its ministrations and slipped two fingers inside her, massaging the walls of her entrance just behind her clit. He was rewarded with a low, drawn-out moan from Azu, biting her lip to stifle the sound. One of her hands found the back of his head and clenched into his hair, holding him in place, and as he crooked his fingers he coaxed out more muffled noises of bliss. Hamid wondered what he would hear were they not currently in a thin-walled inn, and hoped desperately for the chance to discover it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you able to reach just a little further inside?” Azu asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid stretched out his fingers as far as they would allow, but he could sense that the spot he needed to find was just slightly out of his grasp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” he whispered back, as another thought occurred to him. “I could… maybe I could use my whole hand?” It was not something he had ever considered doing before, and the idea terrified and excited him all at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oooh.” Azu took a moment to consider the offer. “I would like to try that, I think. But maybe another time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When we’re a little more prepared,” Hamid agreed, the terror slipping away and leaving him with a pure shiver of delight at the thought of returning to Azu’s bed, and of having so much of him inside her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For now, well…” Her mouth twitched up around her tusks in her own mischievous smile and she glanced between his legs. “How about doing things the usual way?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid knelt up and reached for his prick, which was already achingly hard in anticipation. Still he hesitated, resting a hand on Azu’s thigh, exceedingly conscious of their difference in size. “Are you sure? I can’t imagine it being very satisfying for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu gave a fond, if exasperated, huff. “Oh hush, Hamid. Please. I want it. I want you. I want to join with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid needed no further encouragement to line himself up and press inside her, swallowing down a wail of joy. It wasn’t a tightness around him but rather an enveloping—an all-encompassing heat that entered through his groin and spread out into every inch of the rest of him. He began to move his hips, feeling like a part of her, a part made to love the rest of her, to adore her in all of her strength and beauty. He looked up at Azu’s face for guidance, trying to move in a way that would give her the same profound pleasure he felt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of Azu’s hands moved down his back and over his thighs, the other tenderly cupping his face, and she looked at him with an intensity of love and happiness that melted his insides. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could never fail to satisfy me, habib albi,” she said breathlessly, her face radiant. “It’s—can you angle up a little more, my love?—size has nothing to do with it—ah! There!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bracing himself against her muscled belly, Hamid adjusted his position until Azu threw her head back with a vigorous nod, mouth sealed shut to stop herself from crying out. Temporarily robbed of words, they seemed to build up inside of her mouth until she let them all out of her at once in a gasp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh darling, sweetheart, Hamid, <em>yes</em>. Nakupenda, nakupenda sana, ah! <em>Hamid</em>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every utterance filled him with another burst of ecstasy and he moved harder and faster, until his core ached and his arms trembled with the effort. The flush of heat spreading through him was scorching now—it didn’t hurt him, but it coursed under his skin as if something beneath was desperate to burst out of him. He felt burning ripples over his upper arms, his shoulder blades, his chest and hips and down his spine, and he didn’t have to see them to know that they glistened with emerging brassy scales, even more vivid and pronounced than his usual metallic dusting these days. Azu drew her fingers across their surface, enraptured, though she also took one of his wrists in a gentle grip and squeezed in an unspoken query.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” Hamid replied bravely, even as a clump of sweat-soaked hair flopped down onto his face. Hands occupied in keeping himself balanced, he attempted to blow it out of his vision without much success, and gave a bashful grin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me take over,” Azu suggested. “Trust me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Holding Hamid tightly to her, Azu rolled them over and in a moment was straddling him, enough of her weight on her legs not to crush him and the rest pressing him firmly down into the bed. Hamid relaxed, letting his head drop back onto the sheets, and ran the backs of his hands along Azu’s thighs on either side of him until he reached her knees, which rested on the bed at the level of his ears. She cupped one hand around his head and placed the other upon his chest, holding him steady, and she fitted so perfectly around him on all sides that he was too overwhelmed to speak—just nodded desperately up at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu began to move then, carefully at first, rolling her hips deep and slow, finding the angle again. Finally, he could watch her in all her glory, the bulk and muscle of her frame moving with gentle and fluid precision, and seeming almost to glow in the lamplight. Hamid felt the shift in pressure on the head of his prick as it rubbed right where she needed it to be, and tried to thrust up to meet her. But then Azu began to ride him harder, beyond any of his strength to match, and he surrendered all movement, all of himself, to the weight of her love. She began to gasp and moan with each thrust and Hamid did too as his body thrummed with pleasure, compounded like shockwaves each time she pressed down upon him, as if just one more push would dissolve all barrier between them, merging them in glorious ecstasy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He clutched at her legs on each side of him, and he cried, “It’s so much, oh Azu, it’s so much!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too much?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no, not too much, oh Azu, please, I’ll never get enough!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pushed down hard, tightened her fingers and closed her eyes, expression rapturous, as a shudder ran through her. And then she was coming, the pulse of her orgasm coursing through her body and into him. His own crashed down upon him in response, an intense, powerful surge that briefly drowned every other sense—though in those few seconds he looked up and thought he saw Azu transfigured, her body infused with a pink glow. She bent down to kiss him as they rode through the aftershocks, as if to seal their union, and Hamid felt a strange sense of divine blessing upon them both. And then the moment passed, and Azu rolled off him and fell, panting and grinning, back onto the bed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Greedy little thing,” she teased, turning to him and brushing his hair back from his forehead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid gave a cherubic smile in response. “You know me.” He raised his arm to clean them up again, and was stopped by Azu grabbing his wrist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you not enjoy being a sticky mess after sex for at least two minutes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never!” Hamid protested, and in the scuffle that followed, Azu managed to tickle him into a ball, pin him down by the wrists, and even lie bodily on top of him, but he still got off enough castings to leave them clean and dry, and his hair in a moderately presentable state, before they collapsed back on the bed in breathless giggles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Magic!” he wheezed. Azu prodded Hamid in the stomach for his smugness, and he stuck out his tongue at her, and she wrinkled her nose at him, and then they lay on their sides, hands tucked under their heads, looking at one another and unable to stop smiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azu reached out and stroked her fingers over the patches of scales on Hamid’s body, now beginning to fade back to their usual subtle brassy sheen. For now, at least, though Hamid suspected they would continue to become more pronounced as time went on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re like a furnace,” she murmured. “Fire beneath the skin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hamid gave a laugh that was almost a sob, catching in the back of his throat against an unexpected surge of emotion. “I know it sounds awfully cheesy,” he explained, “but it’s how it works—I love you, Azu. I love you so much I’m burning up with it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The look Azu gave him was overwhelmingly fond. “Oh my darling Hamid… you’re very lucky I don’t mind cheesy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gave her a playful push, which accomplished nothing but rocking himself back against the bed, and Azu reached out to gather him back into her arms. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I’m very lucky you love me so much,” she added. “You make a wonderful hot water bottle.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“‘t’s my pleasure,” Hamid replied, resting his cheek back against her chest, his skin against hers, soothed by her heartbeat. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you, Hamid.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you, Azu.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His sleep was peaceful, and untroubled by dreams.</span>
</p>
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